Well, let’s get right to the bad news. Prices have increased. The continued decline of the dollar’s value, combined with the increased cost of wood has forced us to bump up prices a bit, just a year and a half after the last increase. The good news is that the current quality of shafting is as good as it has ever been.
You can see in the image that the pricing is now a little more complicated. We know most wood arrow shooters like to keep things simple, but this structured pricing is necessary to better reflect the mismatch between supply and demand of the higher spine shafting. When possible, we will run sales on that given spine and grade, for example, at the time of writing this, we are running a buy one dozen, get one dozen 50% off sale on 35-40 and 40-45 Premium 11/32”.
Looking at the new pricing chart, you might notice that 5/16”, 21/64”, and 23/64” diameters are listed, in addition to the longtime standard, 11/32”. You can now find 5/16” and 23/64” offered on the website in both Hunters and Premiums. 5/16” will be regularly stocked here on out. 21/64”* will be an occasional, limited-run item. The 23/64” inventory will be somewhat spotty through the end of the year, when some more work is done on the moulder, to make changing out knives a simple task rather than the multiple day effort it is now.
Speaking of the moulder, more good news is that the newly designed knives are now producing more shafts/material and reducing the number of sanding passes down from 5-6 to just 1-2 passes. This reduction in waste and increase in productivity will allow us to better keep up with the growing demand for Douglas-fir shafts. The goal for this Fall and Winter, in addition to putting meat in the freezer here, is to secure some real nice Douglas-fir timber, and the new found efficiencies in the shop will help free up a little more time for getting both that wood and meat.
Best of luck to everyone carrying a bow and arrow in the woods this Fall!
Carson
A Note on Spine, Diameter, and Mass Weight: Recently, I have had several customers interested in switching to 5/16” in the hopes of getting a lighter shaft. Well, it doesn’t quite work that way with wood. The mass weight is very tightly correlated with spine for any given wood species. In a nutshell, the mass weight range in a given spine 11/32” will be the same weight range available for that given spine in 5/16” or even 23/64”. The mass weight follows the spine, not the diameter.
A Note on Pricing: Some might not be aware, but there is a $0.59/shaft tax on all arrow shafts manufactured in or imported to the US. It is a Federal Excise tax, like the one 10-14% tax on other sporting goods, a result of the Robertson Pitman act. For some reason, the tax on arrow shafts is a per shaft tax rather than a percentage of sale price. If it helps you stomach an additional tax, just know that the Robertson Pitman funds do go towards hunting opportunities.
*21/64” is a bit of an odd size diameter in wood shafts, as point manufacturers haven’t produced this size point in decades. For the fractionally challenged, it is just smaller than 11/32” and just larger than 5/16”. It is a great shafting size when it comes to performance, but most guys are put off by the lack of point or nocks in this size. In reality, an 11/32” point fits just fine and the tail end can always be tapered to 5/16”.